CMNS: A perspective from the “Google group”

23rd International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science mdt@google.com

What would happen if well-qualified, open-minded, academic scientists were given

Dr. Phil A. Schauer, Staff Scientist Mr. Ben P. MacLeod, Ph.D. Candidate Dr. Brian Lam, Postdoctoral Fellow Mr. Ke Hu, M.A.Sc. Candidate

Dr. Noah J. J. Johnson, Postdoctoral Fellow Ms. Rebecca S. Sherbo, Ph.D. Candidate

Dr. James W. Grayson, Former Postdoctoral Fellow Mr. Fraser G. L. Parlane, Ph.D. Candidate

Dr. Adam J. H. Bottomley, Former Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Lacey M. Reid, Former Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Daniel Rettenwander, Former Postdoctoral Fellow Mr. David Y. Young, Former M.S. Candidate

Dr. Joe Murray, Former Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Tarun Narayan, Former Postdoctoral Fellow Mr. Kevin Palm, Ph.D. Candidate

Google: Dr. Craig H. Barratt, Former SVP; Mr. John Giannandrea, Former SVP; Dr. Seid Sadat, Former Contractor

Matt Trevithick June 9, 2021 ICCF-23 23rd International Conference on Condensed Matter Nuclear Science mdt@google.com

What would happen if well-qualified, open-minded, academic scientists were given

Unsettled status of “cold fusion” is unconscionable. Credible, current research would help inform this debate.

* To ensure the privacy of all participants, our collaborations were under NDA. Full details can not be disclosed.

● No lab work was conducted at Google $10 million invested in external sponsored research

● Collaborations varied in duration and funding amount 27 peer-reviewed articles published to date

Claim: Cathode loading of PdHx where x ≥ 0.875 is required to produce excess heat. Our experience: Highly hydrided materials are difficult to produce. The dynamic equilibrium of hydrogen ingress and egress produces loadings far short of the thermodynamic limit. We achieved x = 0.96 ± 0.02 once. Hydrogen loading is difficult to measure. We found in situ XRD and stripping coulometry to be the most accurate methods. Conclusion: “...more work is required to produce stable samples of PdHx where x ≥ 0.875 to comprehensively evaluate these claims.”

Claim: Certain metallic powders, such as nickel and lithium aluminium hydride, produce excess heat when heated in hydrogen gas. Our experience: We designed a calorimeter capable of operating at 1,200 °C and 33 atm with less than 2% measurement uncertainty. To detect ≥ 10% excess heat events with 98% confidence, each experiment was run 4 times in parallel in identical calorimeters. For 16 months, we evaluated the effects of temperature, pressure, sample composition, particle size, and surface treatment. Conclusion: “...none of the 420 samples we evaluated provided evidence of excess heat.”

Claim: Nuclear by-products, such as tritium, can be generated in low energy pulsed plasma experiments. Our experience: We used a pulsed plasma (20 µs, 50 Hz, 1-5 keV, 1 A peak) in a deuterium gas environment to drive deuterons into palladium wire targets. After prolonged irradiation (hours to weeks), ex situ measurements of the targets indicated no enhanced tritium production. More work is required to rigorously evaluate mechanisms to enhance fusion rates < 2 keV, such as electronic screening. Conclusion: “We are enthused by the possibility of obtaining reaction cross-section and S-factor data in the grey shaded region [of the figure on the right]...”

Did we find a reference experiment? No. “So far, we have found no evidence of anomalous effects claimed by proponents of cold fusion that cannot otherwise be explained prosaically”, but “the search for a reference experiment for cold fusion remains a worthy pursuit”.*

Is cold fusion research compatible with mainstream academic practice? Yes. Incentives and interests of researchers and sponsors can (and must) be aligned. Committing to publish in high impact, peer reviewed journals helps achieve that.

Clean energy investment worldwide must increase to $4 trillion annually to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and limit temperature rise to 1.5°C by 2100. Faced with the prospect of having to invest $100 trillion by 2050 to transform the global energy system, influential people are interested to learn about all available options. Interest in fusion energy has increased notably since December 2020. The cost of transitioning to a low carbon economy is sinking in

20k article accesses This article is in the 99th percentile (ranked 1,186th) of the 275,787 tracked articles of a similar age in all journals and the 84th percentile (ranked 145th) of the 944 tracked articles of a similar age in Nature*

“We got our impetus from the Google paper appearing in Nature,” says Carl Gotzmer, Indian Head’s Chief Scientist. - IEEE Spectrum, Whether Cold Fusion or Low-Energy Nuclear Reactions, U.S. Navy Researchers Reopen Case (March 2021)

... the main motivation for this work is based on the recent Nature perspective “Revisiting the cold case of cold fusion”. - EU Horizon 2020 HERMES project description, Breakthrough zero-emissions heat generation with hydrogen-metal systems (November 2020)

“Quantum 2.0 refers to the development and use of many-body quantum superposition, entanglement, and measurement to advance science and technology.”* Examples include:

These forward looking statements are the personal opinions of the speaker. They are not to be construed as the official position of Google.

Andrea Rossi (E-cat) Tom Darden (Industrial Heat) Bill Gates (Texas Tech University)

● Current Science: Special Section: Low Energy Nuclear Reactions (India) Image/photo credits: Amazon.com, Cold Fusion News, New Energy Times

There is a heated debate in the LENR community about the degree to which anomalous effects are already “proven”. However, truly independent replications are lacking.

Our experience is that the LENR community either can not teach or will not teach. Failure to share the best of what is known has impeded scientific progress.

“Collectively we have the answer, individually none of us does!” - Michael McKubre, ICCF-20, Sendai, Japan (2017)

There is a place in history for the person or group who successfully enables truly independent replication of their claimed anomalous effect. For the good of the planet and the health of this field, let’s aspire to have one set of claims independently verified and published in a peer reviewed journal by ICCF-24.

Let’s recruit 100 new scientists to this field. We will learn from them. As the abstract of our Nature Perspective concludes, “...we contend that there remains much interesting science to be done in this underexplored parameter space.”

1. MacLeod, B. P. et al. High-temperature high-pressure calorimeter for studying gram-scale heterogeneous chemical reactions. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 88, 084101 (2017). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Sherbo, R. S. et al. Accurate coulometric quantification of hydrogen absorption in palladium nanoparticles and thin films. Chem. Mater. 30c 3963–3970 (2018). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3. Sherbo, R. S., Delima, R. S., Chiykowski, V. A., MacLeod, B. P. & Berlinguette, C. P. Complete electron economy by pairing electrolysis with hydrogenation. Nat. Catal. 1, 501–507 (2018). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Murray, J. B. et al. Apparatus for combined nanoscale gravimetric, stress, and thermal measurements. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 085106 (2018). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5. Palm, K. J., Murray, J. B., Narayan, T. C. & Munday, J. N. Dynamic optical properties of metal hydrides. ACS Photonics 5, 4677–4686 (2018). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Benck, J. D., Rettenwander, D., Jackson, A., Young, D. & Chiang, Y.-M. Apparatus for operando x-ray diffraction of fuel electrodes in high temperature solid oxide electrochemical cells. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 90, 023910 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. Johnson, N. J. J. et al. Facets and vertices regulate hydrogen uptake and release in palladium nanocrystals. Nat. Mater. 18, 454–458 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. Fork, D. K., Munday, J. N., Narayan, T. & Murray, J. B. Target structure for enhanced electron screening. US Patent 10264661B2 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. MacLeod, B. P., Fork, D. K., Lam, B. & Berlinguette, C. P. Calorimetry under non-ideal conditions using system identification. J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 138, 3139–3157 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10. Benck, J. D., Jackson, A., Young, D., Rettenwander, D. & Chiang, Y.-M. Producing high concentrations of hydrogen in palladium via electrochemical insertion from aqueous and solid electrolytes. Chem. Mater. 31, 4234–4245 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Berlinguette, Curtis P., Yet-Ming Chiang, Jeremy N. Munday, Thomas Schenkel, David K. Fork, Ross Koningstein, and Matthew D. Trevithick. Revisiting the cold case of cold fusion. Nature 570, 45–51 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12. Delima, R. S., Sherbo, R. S., Dvorak, D. J., Kurimoto, A. & Berlinguette, C. P. Supported palladium membrane reactor architecture for electrocatalytic hydrogenation. J. Mater. Chem. A 7, 26586–26595 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13. Palm, K. J., Murray, J. B., McClure, J. P., Leite, M. S. & Munday, J. N. In situ optical and stress characterization of alloyed PdxAu1–x hydrides. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 45057–45067 (2019). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

14. Johnson, N. J. J., Lam, B., Sherbo, R. S., Fork, D. K. & Berlinguette, C. P. Ligands affect hydrogen absorption and desorption by palladium nanoparticles. Chem. Mater. 31, 8679–8684 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15. Schenkel, T. et al. Investigation of light ion fusion reactions with plasma discharges. J. Appl. Phys. 126, 203302 (2019). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

16. Fork, D. K., Munday, J. N., Narayan, T. & Murray, J. B. Enhanced electron screening through plasmon oscillations. US Patent 10566094B2 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

17. Jansonius, R. P. et al. Strain influences the hydrogen evolution activity and absorption capacity of palladium. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed Engl. 59, 12192–12198 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

18. Jansonius, R. P. et al. Hydrogenation without H2 using a palladium membrane flow cell. Cell Rep. Phys. Sci. 1, 100105 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

19. Kurimoto, A., Sherbo, R. S., Cao, Y., Loo, N. W. X. & Berlinguette, C. P. Electrolytic deuteration of unsaturated bonds without using D2. Nat. Catal. 3, 719–726 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20. Berlinguette, C. P. From cold fusion to pharmaceuticals. Nature Chemistry, ‘Behind the Paper’ (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

21. Gong, T. et al. Emergent opportunities with metallic alloys: From material design to optical devices. Adv. Opt. Mater. 8, 2001082 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

22. Moreno-Gonzalez, M. et al. Sulfuric acid electrolyte impacts palladium chemistry at reductive potentials. Chem. Mater. 32, 9098–9106 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

23. Reihani, A., Lim, J. W., Fork, D. K., Meyhofer, E. & Reddy, P. Microwatt-resolution calorimeter for studying the reaction thermodynamics of nanomaterials at high temperature and pressure. ACS Sens 6, 387–398 (2020). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

24. Huang, A. et al. Electrolysis can be used to resolve hydrogenation pathways at palladium surfaces in a membrane reactor. JACS Au 1, 336–343 (2021). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

25. Young, D., Jackson, A., Fork, D., Sadat, S., Rettenwander, D., Benck, J. D., Chiang, Y.-M., An operando calorimeter for high temperature electrochemical cells. J. Phys.: Energy, 3[3] (2021). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

26. Kurimoto, A., et al. Physical separation of H2 activation from hydrogenation chemistry reveals the specific role of secondary metal catalysts. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 60, 11937–11942 (2021). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

27. Schenkel, T., et al. Apparatus and method for sourcing fusion reaction products. US Patent Application 20210151206 (2021). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Several replications of a methodology to generate an ultra dense form either of protium or deuterium have been conducted. The conclusion drawn from experiments upon the material is that a particle spacing of approximately 52 femtometer is induced by a phase change from a less dense state, when prompted by a disturbance (laser, beta ray, even fluorescent lighting.) This lattice like spacing is within proximity for nucleons to tunnel—and associated fusion reaction products are detected with deuterium usage.

In addition, the generation of mesons, different flavors of which are generated based on protium or deuterium experiments, is a serendipitous discovery. Protium yields a decay chain resultant of negative muons, which act as 200 times more massive electrons, capable of also achieving the 52 fm spacing of nucleons and yield a fusion reaction. The energy invested to generate these muons is much less than prior methodology. Serious investment to develop a commercial muon driven fusion process is ongoing. Their first product is likely to be a testing article based upon the generation of neutrons in a field setting.

Over the prior two years, the focus shifted to direct applications for the meson decay-chain products. About 54% of all energy is spirited away by neutrinos, leaving the possibility of tapping a relativistic flow of charged particles for direct conversion to electricity. The particle flux in the small lab experiments is sufficient to directly drive an oscilloscope.

Sounds familiar.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comment?id=10.1371/annotation/6fff7272-e039-4c2a-99d9-c08cb253c6e1

Mesons from Laser-Induced Processes in Ultra-Dense Hydrogen H(0)
Leif Holmlid
Published: January 12, 2017
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169895

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There is some discussion regarding the applicability of this paper over here
Posted by ko’malley on 11 Jun 2017 at 22:23 GMT
http://www.e-catworld.com...

Alan DeAngelis • a day ago [hush][hide comment]
Study the simplest system. Less Chase’s “football” was just deuterium gas and palladium on carbon. The creation of helium-4 was seen by mass spectroscopy (at 36:35 min. in video).

My two cents: the pairs of electrons, ~, in the palladium deuteride bonds, D~Pd~D, lower the coulomb barrier allowing palladium to absorb two deuterons when heated (heat = infrared stretching of the covalent deuteride bonds) to form cadmium in an excited state, Cd*, which in turn fissions back into palladium, Pd, and helium-4, He. Therefore, a fusion-fission reaction with 24 MeV of kinetic energy without a gamma ray.
D~Pd~D > Cd* > Pd + He + 24 MeV of kinetic energy (with no gamma ray)
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Alan DeAngelis Alan DeAngelis • an hour ago
PS
Think about the Mitsubishi transmutations. Pairs of deuterons are reacting with metals.
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Kevmo Alan DeAngelis • 14 hours ago
Then how do you explain the Hydrogen-Nickel interaction?
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Alan DeAngelis Kevmo • 6 hours ago
H~Ni(64)~H > Zn((66)* > Ni(62) + He(4) 11.8 MeV (no gamma rays)
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Kevmo Alan DeAngelis • 3 hours ago
From what I have read there isn’t nearly enough Ni(62) nor He(4) found in these cells to account for so much long term heat.
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Alan DeAngelis Kevmo • 2 hours ago
I really don’t know. At the time, I was just thinking about the disappearance of Ni(64).
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Axil Axil Kevmo • 2 hours ago
Most energy produced by LENR goes into the creation of muons and electrons. This energy comes from the decay of protons and neutrons. See my post above for an explanation of how this happens.
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Kevmo Axil Axil • an hour ago
Is there an experiment that would verify your hypothesis?
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